China’s Censors Scramble to Curb ‘Panama Papers’ News

A panoramic view of the headquarters of the law firm Mossack Fonseca in Panama City.
Photo:
Zuma Press

This post has been updated.

As the political fallout continues rippling from leaked documents detailing offshore accounts linked to prominent people across the world, China is trying to ensure that scrutiny of its Communist Party elite stays beyond its water’s edge.

Since news reports emerged Sunday on the so-called “Panama Papers,” Chinese media have largely ignored their revelations on offshore assets controlled by relatives of top party officials, including President Xi Jinping. Censors have curbed news and social media mentions of the documents, though their efforts appear uneven.

Relatives of several current and former members of China’s Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, were reportedly identified in the documents, which included emails, financial spreadsheets and corporate records from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca & Co.

Those officials include Mr. Xi, former premier Li Peng, and ex-Politburo Standing Committee member Jia Qinglin, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which was among the more than 100 news organizations that have examined the Panama Papers. The BBC, one of the news outlets that reviewed the papers, has named current Politburo Standing Committee members Zhang Gaoli and Liu Yunshan as having relatives identified in the leaked documents.

Neither the Communist Party’s flagship People’s Daily newspaper nor state broadcaster China Central Television has reported on the Panama Papers. Coverage by the official Xinhua News Agency has so far been limited to an article detailing comments made by Michel Platini, the disgraced former president of Europe’s soccer federation, in response to being identified in the leaked documents.

Some Chinese commercial news portals ran reports on the Panama Papers that focused on people with close connections to foreign personalities, such as the late father of U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, without mentioning details linked to Chinese political figures.

Many of these articles have since become inaccessible. The Shanghai Daily, for instance, had published an English-language article summarizing foreign news reports on the Panama Papers, with references to Chinese politicians and their relatives excised. The article, which was accessible late Monday morning, has since been taken down.

Even so, some reports survived the apparent censorship, including articles outlining alleged tax evasion by Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi, who has denied the accusations.

A number of Chinese search engines, including Baidu and Sohu, blocked searches for the term “Panama Papers,” though other related terms like “Panama Leaks” produced results.

The censorship also appeared patchy on the popular Weibo microblogging service. According to censorship-monitoring website Free Weibo, many posts related to the leaked documents have been removed, but checks by China Real Time found that plenty of microblog items directly referencing the Panama Papers were still visible as of Monday morning.

Global Times, a nationalistic tabloid run by the People’s Daily, meanwhile used the Panama Papers as a soapbox for criticizing Western news outlets and their alleged efforts to shape negative public opinion against geopolitical opponents like Mr. Putin.

“The Western media has taken control of the interpretation each time there has been such a document dump, and Washington has demonstrated particular influence in it,” Global Times said Tuesday in parallel English- and Chinese-language editorials.

“Information that is negative to the U.S. can always be minimized, while exposure of non-Western leaders, such as Putin, can get extra spin.”